BestStart Kaiwharawhara

Education institution number:
50063
Service type:
Education and Care Service
Definition:
Not Applicable
Total roll:
87
Telephone:
Address:

162-168 Hutt Road, Kaiwharawhara, Wellington

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BestStart Kaiwharawhara

ERO’s Akanuku | Assurance Review reports provide information about whether a service meets and maintains regulatory standards. Further information about Akanuku | Assurance Reviews is included at the end of this report.

ERO’s Judgement

Regulatory standards

ERO’s judgement

Curriculum

Meeting

Premises and facilities

Meeting

Health and safety

Meeting

Governance, management and administration

Meeting

At the time of the review, ERO found the service was taking reasonable steps to meet regulatory standards.

Background

Beststart Kaiwharawhara service is owned and operated by BestStart Educare Ltd. BestStart is a national organisation which owns early childhood services across New Zealand. Since the February 2020 ERO review, a new centre manager and several teachers have been appointed. A professional practice leader and an area manager oversee and support the manager and teachers.

Summary of Review Findings

Teachers acknowledge the aspirations of parents and whānau and use this information to provide a responsive curriculum for all children. The design and layout of the service supports the different types of indoor and outdoor experiences. These include quiet spaces, areas for physically active play, and space for a range of individual and group learning experiences. Health and safety systems, processes and procedures are implemented and monitored.

Key Next Steps 

Next steps include: 

  • using a wider range of strategies to build children’s oral language development
  • promoting greater use of te reo Māori with children, as well as increasing te ao Māori resources to further enrich children’s learning.

Next ERO Review

The next ERO review is likely to be an Akarangi | Quality Evaluation.

Lesley Patterson
Director Review and Improvement Services (Southern)
Southern Region | Te Tai Tini
30 June 2021 

Information About the Service

Early Childhood Service Name BestStart Kaiwharawhara
Profile Number 50063
Location Wellington

Service type

Education and care service

Number licensed for

100 children, including up to 28 aged under 2.

Percentage of qualified teachers

80%+

Service roll

103

Ethnic composition

Māori 7, NZ European/Pākehā 59, Asian 28, Other ethnicities 9                       

Review team onsite

May 2021

Date of this report

30 June 2021

Most recent ERO report(s)

Education Review, February 2020; Education Review, May 2016.

General Information about Assurance Reviews

All services are licensed under the Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008. The legal requirements for early childhood services also include the Licensing Criteria for Education and Care Services 2008.

Services must meet the standards in the regulations and the requirements of the licensing criteria to gain and maintain a licence to operate.

ERO undertakes an Akanuku | Assurance Review process in any centre-based service:

  • having its first ERO review – including if it is part of a governing organisation
  • previously identified as ‘not well placed’ or ‘requiring further development’
  • that has moved from a provisional to a full licence
  • that have been re-licenced due to a change of ownership
  • where an Akanuku | Assurance Review process is determined to be appropriate.

Management Assurance on Legal Requirements

All early childhood services are required to promote children’s health and safety and to regularly review their compliance with legal requirements. Before the review, the staff and management of a service completed an ERO Centre Assurance Statement and Self-Audit Checklist.  In these documents they attested that they have taken all reasonable steps to meet their legal obligations related to:

  • curriculum
  • premises and facilities
  • health and safety practices
  • governance, management and administration.

As part of an Akanuku | Assurance Review ERO assesses whether the regulated standards are being met. In particular, ERO looks at a service’s systems for managing the following areas that have a potentially high impact on children's wellbeing:

  • emotional safety (including positive guidance and child protection)
  • physical safety (including supervision; sleep procedures; accidents; medication; hygiene; excursion policies and procedures)
  • suitable staffing (including qualification levels; police vetting; teacher certification; ratios)
  • evacuation procedures and practices for fire and earthquake.

As part of an Akanuku | Assurance Review ERO also gathers and records evidence through:

  • discussions with those involved in the service
  • consideration of relevant documentation, including the implementation of health and safety systems
  • observations of the environment/premises, curriculum implementation and teaching practice.

BestStart Kaiwharawhara - 26/02/2020

1 Evaluation of BestStart Kaiwharawhara

How well placed is BestStart Kaiwharawhara to promote positive learning outcomes for children?

Not well placed

Requires further development

Well placed

Very well placed

BestStart Kaiwharawhara requires further development to promote positive learning outcomes for children.

The services previous ERO reports of April 2013 and May 2016 identified a number of areas where improvements were required. These included: enhancing the bicultural curriculum; promoting educational success for Māori; strengthening self review and assessment, planning and evaluation. Most of these areas remain as key next steps for improvement.

Background

BestStart Kaiwharawhara is one of a number of early childhood services operating under the umbrella of Beststart Educare Ltd (the organisation). The service is licensed for 100 children, including up to 28 children aged up to two years. It serves a diverse ethnic community. Of the roll of 104 children, four identify as Māori and five of Pacific heritage. Full-time education and care is offered across three play rooms.

A national management team sets the strategic direction for each service. A regional professional service manager (RPSM) and an area manager (AM) have oversight of teaching and learning, financial management, staff appraisal, teacher registration and professional development. Day-to-day operation of the centre is the responsibility of the centre manager.

Since the May 2016 ERO report, a centre manager and an AM have been recently appointed. Most of the teaching team are registered and long serving.

The philosophy underpinning teaching and learning emphasises the importance of Whakawhanaungatanga, Manaakitanga and Kotahitanga. The services vision is "cherishing, collaborative learning".

The Review Findings

The centre philosophy provides a shared direction for the teaching programme. Leaders and teachers have developed useful practice statements to support effective implementation.

Older children play freely in the indoor and outdoor environments. A range of activities and routines are largely teacher led. Some aspects of literacy and numeracy are evident in the activities and the environments. The infant’s environment is spacious and well resourced. This promotes their emotional and social support. Routines are seen as learning opportunities.

Children with additional learning needs are well supported to participate in the programme. The service works with external agencies and parents to collaboratively develop and enact learning plans.

The quality of the enacted curriculum requires strengthening. Teachers need to develop a deeper understanding of effective pedagogical practice across all age groups and then use this to plan a programme that will engage, respond and support children's learning. This should enable teachers to maximise opportunities to add challenge, complexity and authenticity to children's emerging skills and knowledge.

Teachers record and discuss observations of children’s play and learning, and celebrate their growing friendships, skills and learning characteristics. A new individual planning framework has been implemented and the next steps are to embed this with all kaiako. This should include:

  • how teachers have supported children’s learning and progress, through targeted teaching

  • clear, evidence-based evaluation of the impact of these strategies

  • ways teachers have deliberately used children’s interests to promote new learning, particularly in relation to parent aspirations

  • demonstrating how an understanding of children’s unique cultures, languages and identities have enriched teaching strategies and informed assessment for learning.

The bicultural curriculum continues to be an area for development. A next step is to authentically weave learning about te ao Māori and local kaupapa through the curriculum. Children would benefit from increased opportunities to hear and use te reo Māori. The teaching team identified the need to develop practices that respond more effectively to Pacific learners.

Developing a shared understanding and consistent approach to the agreed behaviour management strategies across all rooms is a priority. Ongoing monitoring, evaluation, and refinement of these strategies should continue with a focus on improving outcomes for children.

The newly developed internal evaluation framework provides suitable guidance for teachers to improve practice. Teachers need to continue to develop their understanding and use of robust internal evaluation focused on positive outcomes for children.

Managers effectively foster a collective sense of responsibility to implement the vision, values and mission of the organisation. They are reflective and highly improvement focused. Systems and processes have been well developed to strengthen teacher’s capability and positively impact on children’s learning.

A well-considered appraisal process has been developed by the organisation to grow and develop teacher practice. Teachers are encouraged to inquire into the effectiveness of their teaching. Purposeful appraisal goals focus on strengthening leadership and practice to support children’s learning and wellbeing.

Key Next Steps

Priorities for development and improvement include:

  • the quality of teaching

  • planning for learning

  • developing the bicultural curriculum

  • understanding and use of internal evaluation.

Management Assurance on Legal Requirements

Before the review, the staff and management of BestStart Kaiwharawhara completed an ERO Centre Assurance Statement and Self-Audit Checklist. In these documents they attested that they have taken all reasonable steps to meet their legal obligations related to:

  • curriculum
  • premises and facilities
  • health and safety practices
  • governance, management and administration.

During the review, ERO looked at the service’s systems for managing the following areas that have a potentially high impact on children's wellbeing:

  • emotional safety (including positive guidance and child protection)

  • physical safety (including supervision; sleep procedures; accidents; medication; hygiene; excursion policies and procedures)

  • suitable staffing (including qualification levels; police vetting; teacher registration; ratios)

  • evacuation procedures and practices for fire and earthquake.

All early childhood services are required to promote children’s health and safety and to regularly review their compliance with legal requirements.

Development Plan Recommendation

ERO recommends that the service, in consultation with the Ministry of Education, develops a plan to address the key next steps and actions outlined in this report.

Dr Lesley Patterson

Director Review and Improvement Services (Southern)

Southern Region - Te Tai Tini

26 February 2020

The Purpose of ERO Reports

The Education Review Office (ERO) is the government department that, as part of its work, reviews early childhood services throughout Aotearoa New Zealand. ERO’s reports provide information for parents and communities about each service’s strengths and next steps for development. ERO’s bicultural evaluation framework Ngā Pou Here is described in SECTION 3 of this report. Early childhood services are partners in the review process and are expected to make use of the review findings to enhance children's wellbeing and learning.

2 Information about the Early Childhood Service

Location

Wellington

Ministry of Education profile number

50063

Licence type

Education & Care Service

Licensed under

Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008

Number licensed for

100 children, including up to 28 aged under 2

Service roll

104

Gender composition

Male 53, Female 51

Ethnic composition

Māori

NZ European/Pākehā

Chinese

Indian

Pacific

African

Other ethnic groups

4

48

13

9

5

5

20

Percentage of qualified teachers

80% +

Reported ratios of staff to children

Under 2

1:4

Better than minimum requirements

Over 2

1:8

Better than minimum requirements

Review team on site

December 2019

Date of this report

26 February 2020

Most recent ERO report(s)

Education Review

May 2016

Education Review

April 2013

3 General Information about Early Childhood Reviews

ERO’s Evaluation Framework

ERO’s overarching question for an early childhood education review is ‘How well placed is this service to promote positive learning outcomes for children?’ ERO focuses on the following factors as described in the bicultural framework Ngā Pou Here:

Pou Whakahaere – how the service determines its vision, philosophy and direction to ensure positive outcomes for children

Pou Ārahi – how leadership is enacted to enhance positive outcomes for children

Mātauranga – whose knowledge is valued and how the curriculum is designed to achieve positive outcomes for children

Tikanga whakaako – how approaches to teaching and learning respond to diversity and support positive outcomes for children.

Within these areas ERO considers the effectiveness of arotake – self review and of whanaungatanga – partnerships with parents and whānau.

ERO evaluates how well placed a service is to sustain good practice and make ongoing improvements for the benefit of all children at the service.

A focus for the government is that all children, especially priority learners, have an opportunity to benefit from quality early childhood education. ERO will report on how well each service promotes positive outcomes for all children, with a focus on children who are Māori, Pacific, have diverse needs, and are up to the age of two.

For more information about the framework and Ngā Pou Here refer to ERO’s Approach to Review in Early Childhood Services.

ERO’s Overall Judgement

The overall judgement that ERO makes will depend on how well the service promotes positive learning outcomes for children. The categories are:

  • Very well placed

  • Well placed

  • Requires further development

  • Not well placed

ERO has developed criteria for each category. These are available on ERO’s website.

Review Coverage

ERO reviews are tailored to each service’s context and performance, within the overarching review framework. The aim is to provide information on aspects that are central to positive outcomes for children and useful to the service.